Arrow
by torquaesavED
Summary: Maximum Ride fanfiction. The character Arrow is my own. The story is from Arrow's point of view and tells of his past and how he encounters the main characters of the original novel. Arrow then joins their group and continues the adventures described in the first book with them.


Maximum Ride fanfiction. The character Arrow is my own. The story is from Arrow's point of view and tells of his past and how he encounters the main characters of the original novel. Arrow then joins their group and continues the adventures described in the first book with them.

Warning, this is long and I basically vomited my brain contents onto a page for several hours. It should probably be broken up into several chapters... ah well.

Originally written: 2012 

* * *

I was raised in a place called The Laboratory in North Dakota. I was designed to be a weapon. At The Laboratory, I was subjected to many tests and cruel experiments. They had me fight with Erasers to hone my fighting skills. At first it was tough. Can you imagine what it would be like for a big, muscular Eraser to be fighting a skinny, wimpy bird-kid? Well, I was beat up pretty badly but the whitecoats would always call the Erasers off before they finished me. Over time, I got better at kicking Eraser butt, but then they would make me fight two at once or two in a row and I would be slaughtered again. Whenever I wasn't fighting Erasers, I would be running on treadmills or poked with needles. They said that it was to measure my oxygen consumption or to see how I would react to various chemicals. Yeah, it was bad to say the least. On the flip side, I was allowed to fly outside. Of course, they had electric fences lining the yard. They also put a shock collar on me to prevent me from flying away. But the thrill of flying was great, even if I was still a prisoner. I found out some time during my stay at The Laboratory that I was the latest in a long line of experiments: the avian-human hybrid. The whitecoats had tried other experiment but they either failed or had some kind of defect. I learned that I wasn't alone but there were six other bird-kids living at a place called The School. I heard that The School created three bird kids at first (Max, Fang, and Iggy). Then about a mouth later, The Lab was given permission by The School to create a bird-kid of their own. So, they created me, Arrow. Later, The School created three other bird-kids (Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel).

I guess I was suppose to be a new type of guard at The Lab because I was designed to be a weapon, but the whitecoats at The Lab only created one bird-kid as an experiment to see if I would be a feasible guard. I was born with a sense to detect danger. It's kind of like Spider Man's spidy sense. The whitecoats called it my Apprehension ability. I think I like bird-kid sense better. With it, I am always able to sense impending danger. I can tell if a group of people or an object is dangerous or if something big is going to happen. I can tell the direction of the impending danger or excitement. I just get a feeling of "something's not right" or a strong feeling of dread or doom. It's really useful because I always get forewarned before something happens. But at The Lab, almost everything sets off my bird-kid sense. I guess my sense was part of my design to be a weapon. Maybe guards always had to be ready for a fight. Whenever I sense something really bad, my veins flood with adrenaline but when it isn't something really big, I just get a bad feeling. I think my bird-kid sense can tell me how bad the impending danger will be.

So every day was the same at The Lab, wake up , do some tests, eat, spar with Erasers, do some tests, fly around outside, sleep in a dog crate; not necessarily in that order. But then one day when I was eleven years old (Jeb rescues the Flock when I'm ten), I developed a new power. I was flying around the yard one day, trying to keep myself from throwing up (the whitecoats had just injected me with something) when I felt a change in my wings. They kept flapping but I was losing altitude and fast. It was strange; I didn't sense anything so I didn't know that this would happen. I started to panic. Was my bird-kid sense failing me? I looked at my frantically flapping wings and I noticed that they had changed from their normal brown color to a brick red color. They were also really rigid (normally, feathers would bend slightly in the wind). My wings could still move normally but my feathers look like they were made of metal. They even reflected the sun. Now I was really panicking. The ground was rushing at me and my feathers couldn't keep me aloft. Just when I was going to go Splat! on the ground, my feathers changed back to normal. Relief flooded my body, I was five feet from becoming a messy stain on the ground. I landed and when I looked up, I saw whitecoats and Erasers running up to me.

"What happened?!" asked a whitecoat. "We saw you lose about fifty feet before you caught yourself."

"I was just sick from the injection" I lied. I didn't want them to know about my feathers. Now that I thought about it, I really hoped that the medicine didn't to this to me.

"Eric, let's get this one inside" the other whitecoat nodded and helped me back into the building (past some Erasers I might add). To be honest, I was still queasy from the injection. Inside, they removed the shock collar and injected me with something else. Immediately, I felt better. As I sat in my cage that night, I thought about what happened. The transformation with my wings felt different. It didn't feel like it was related to the injection. Plus, my bird-kid sense didn't warn me about anything so it couldn't be harmful. Unless of course my bird-kid sense was failing me, which could always be a possibility. I partially unfurled one wing and examined it in the dim overhead lights. Every thing was the same. Good old familiar feathers. Unexpectedly, the feathers changed again!

"Ouch!" I looked down at my hand to see several cuts from where I was feeling my feathers. I look at my wing surprised. They were brick red again and sharp! Carefully, I reached over with my good hand and plucked a feather out of my wing. As my wing changed back to normal, I examined the feather closely. It was harder than steel and extremely sharp. It didn't turn back to normal when I removed it which meant that my feathers took on whatever shape they were in before they lost contact with my body. I turned the feather over and over in my hands (the cuts were healing already, genetically enhanced healing powers rock!) carefully avoiding the sharp edges. The small end of the feather vein that connected feather to wing was still normal but everything else was red metal (it's a good thing I didn't have to feel metal objects poking me, I had enough problems with whitecoat needles). Amazingly, it was still light as a feather (literally). Even though my feathers changed earlier today, they didn't weigh me down. I fell out of the sky because the feathers were no longer aerodynamic. I unfurled both wings as much as I could in the confined dog crate and willed my wings to change. Suddenly, feather became metal, brown became brick-red (if you haven't guessed already, I'm a red-tailed hawk), and soft edges became razors (fyi, my actual wings, the skin and muscle and bone, doesn't change, only my feathers; so basically I had two spiky swords-like wings on my back, Awesome!). The other experiments in the cages surrounding me tensed up. Some growled and others shrunk back in fear. Still others looked confused (fyi, I don't have any friends here, the other experiments are either too much animal or keep to themselves; I was fine with that but it did get lonely from time to time). I smiled to myself. I really was designed to be a weapon (no, I didn't smile at that thought). The whitecoats won't know what hit them (this is what I smiled at).

I decided that I would wait a week before I attempted to escape, incase the whitecoats got suspicious (maybe they knew I was suppose to develop this new power). At night, I tried to figure out what I could do with my new power. Of course I could cut them up (when you live in a dog crate and get abused each day by whitecoats, you lose some of your morals), but I wanted to do more. My attempts at sawing through my cage failed, but I found out that I could launch my feathers at objects by swinging my wing in the direction of my target. I practiced hitting some empty cages in the back of the room and sometimes I could get them to land in the cages. Well what do you know, even though I couldn't fly with my feathers when they were transformed, they cut through the air like darts (or arrows!) when I flung them. Now you may be thinking, "You're going to run out of feathers soon if you keep wasting them on target practice." But new feathers grew in to replace the old ones. Plus, I was only launching one or two each time, not ten. I will admit that it takes time for new feathers to grow in but it's worth it. That brings me to another point. I could control which feathers would change and which would stay normal. It was awesome!

At the end of the week I was really excited. I was finally going to break out of this hellhole. At around noon, I was taken out of my cage to get some fresh air, perfect! I walked down the familiar halls escorted by two Erasers and one whitecoat. The whitecoat attached a shock collar around my neck and led me outside. When I was a couple feet in front of them, I whipped around and unfurled my wings. Before they knew what was happening, two Erasers and one whitecoat were screaming in shock and pain as a barrage of blades pierced their skin. The whitecoat dropped the controller for the shock collar and I lunged at it. But something wasn't right. An Eraser that I had not seen jumped out from behind the bleeding mess and tackled me to the ground. He held me in a headlock but jumped away as my wings swept over him, giving him nasty gashes. I jumped up and changed my wings back to normal, preparing to take off. But just as my feet left the ground, electricity surged through my body. My muscles contracted spasmodically and I fell in a crumpled heap on the ground. Barely conscious, I saw two whitecoats walk over to me.

"He's too dangerous. Did anyone know about his new power?"

"He developed it too early. He was supposed to get it later." (that's why they knew to name me Arrow)

"Tell the boss, he must be moved." Then, I blacked out. (I'm eleven by the way)

...

When I woke up, I was in another dog crate, a smaller one (oh, great). I was in a room that was unfamiliar to me. The only familiar things were the smell of disinfectant and the crates of experiments surrounding me, though I did not recognize any of them. I lay in my cage for a while and pondered how long I had been out. A few hours later, the door of the room opened and three whitecoats came in. I didn't sense danger so I just stared at them.

"Oh, you're awake. You're probably wondering where you are. We'll explain everything."

"Why are you telling me?" I asked.

"We just thought you should know more about your knew home since you'll be staying here for a while." Yeah right, this was my knew "home".

"Well," continued another whitecoat. "You know that you used to be in a place called The Laboratory in North Dakota. But now you're in a place called The School. It's in Nevada." Great, another lab with an ironic name that makes it sound like a nice place. Wait, The Laboratory doesn't sound nice at all. "You were moved because you were too dangerous."

"So this is like a high security prison?" I asked snidely.

"More like a facility where we can run tests in a controlled fashion." Yep, sounds like a high security prison to me. "In light of your new ability, we have designed new tests for you. Your daily schedule will be altered so that we can study you better. We'll be back tomorrow to begin your tests. Food will be provided later today." With that, they left me to my cage. I didn't need my bird-kid sense to tell me that these new tests were bad news. But then, I realized that I was at The School, the place where the six other bird-kids lived. I might actually have friends for once in my eleven years of torture.

The next morning I was fitted with a new shock collar that I would have to wear at all times. Wonderful. Then, I was subject to the regular tests that I was familiar with, namely, run on a treadmill while whitecoats monitored my heart rate, etc. After I rested and drank some mineral fortified water, I was ushered outside into a yard. The first thing I noticed was the Erasers. They were fenced off in one corner of the yard giving me hungry looks. Back at The Lab, the Erasers were kept somewhere else and I only saw them when they guarded stuff or when I sparred with them. I was scarred because there were so many of them but my bird-kid sense wasn't set off so I didn't worry about being eaten by them. Then, I noticed the targets spread out along the yard. Bull eyes and dummies were scattered everywhere. I was beginning to see where this was going and I think I liked it. Anything that made me a better fighter was good. I could use what I learned against the whitecoats one day and escape.

"Target practice" said one whitecoat. "Go on, show us what you can do."

"I can't to this everyday," I informed. "I'll run out of feathers."

"Do what you want. Just show us how adept you are with your new ability." I raced ahead and whipped out my wings that transformed in an instant. I swung one at a group of bulls eyes and swung the other at a dummy, imagining it as a whitecoat. Some feathers missed and others struck the bulls eyes (but I was far from accurate). One feather cut off the dummy's arm and I smiled. One day, that was going to be a whitecoat.

Sadly, I didn't find the other bird-kids. They apparently disappeared a year ago. I was sure that they had been retired but somewhere in my heart, I hoped that they had escaped.

Every day for a year, I went through my new schedule. I got better each day I practiced hitting targets (which by the way, wasn't every day; you lose a lot of feathers when you use them for target practice; I once had to wait a week for all my feathers to grow back, it didn't look pretty; I felt naked with more than half of my feathers missing). The School was actually better than The Lab. The whitecoats experimented on me less and I got more time outside. It seemed as if they went from running various pointless tests on a bird-kid to running tests on a bird-kid designed to fight. I got more exercise everyday and I was given more food. The down side was that the whitecoats still kept injecting me with stuff like steroids to see if I would perform better.

Then one day, when I was twelve, a new whitecoat showed up. His name was Jeb Batchelder. Everyone greeted him as if he was someone important but I just dismissed him. He showed an interest in me when he arrived.

"So I hear that you are the latest arrival to The School. You must be Arrow." Jeb had actually used my name, not like that mattered.

"Yeah, and you are just another whitecoat." I said without looking at him.

"I have been assigned to oversee your progress here at The School. Trust me, I've had experience dealing with avian-human hybrids like you." My attention snapped towards him. Did he know the other six bird-kids? Could I actually meet them? What exactly did he mean by "has experience dealing with"? I'll admit it, I desperately wanted friends. Whenever I heard whitecoats laughing amongst themselves during their lunch breaks, I grew insanely jealous. Even though they were probably talking about how they would experiment on their creations, they seemed to be having fun. The only fun I had was flying around a yard, knowing that I was still a prisoner, even though I was up in the air where no one could get me.

"Come on, lets go out into the yard." Jeb's voice was friendly as he opened the cage and held out his hand. I ignored it and stood up and walked behind him out into the yard. Outside, an obstacle course awaited me. "The object is to make it through the obstacle course while hitting as many targets as you can." Jeb informed me. "Ready?"

"Yeah, sure" I replied, trying to sound bored.

"Go!" With that, I ran to the entrance and whipped some feathers at a target. I kept running, keeping my wings slightly unfurled so that I could use them and so I wouldn't be slowed down by the air resistance created by fully extended wings. I shot to the left, following the path marked in the dirt and did a flying kick (literally) into a target. It snapped in half and I continued running. Up ahead was a large wall. I leaped up and fully extended my wings. Catching the air, I soared over the barrier and landed neatly on the other side. I sprinted off again and turned right. In the distance, I noticed a sign that said HIT TARGETS WHILE FLYING. I took off again and flew five feet above the ground. Targets popped out behind barrels and bushes and I attacked them with feathers. Let me tell you, it's not easy to multi task with your wing. I changed only two or three feathers on my left wing (I'm a lefty by the way, how do I know?, I favor my left fist over my right when I'm punching the lights out of an Eraser) and swung it in front of me. Yes! Bulls Eye! I quickly resumed flapping so that I wouldn't fall. More targets appeared and I tried again with my right wing. Not bad, wasn't as accurate as before, but hey. I slowly descended in front of a group of whitecoats and folded my wings in behind me. Some gave me looks of approval and others were scribbling down notes. I ignored them. I wasn't here to get approval. I was doing this because I had to. Otherwise, the whitecoats might get trigger happy with my shock collar. Jeb walked over to me.

"Excellent, Arrow. You're very skilled with your ablilities." I shrugged. "Let me train you so that you can be even better." I nodded. I didn't sense anything bad and a little extra training couldn't do much harm. Over the course of two years, I trained with Jeb. It was the happiest that I've ever been in my life up to that point. Jeb told the whitecoats to stop poking me with needles and I wasn't treated cruelly at all. Except for the face that I still slept in a dog crate. At least it was a large dog crate (woot! Upgrade). Jeb taught me how to throw feathers with my hands so that I could hit targets accurately (my wings launch feathers more powerfully but my hands are more accurate). He also honed my hand-to-hand combat skills and taught me how to fly better. I didn't even know that I could move the tips of my feathers to control my direction. He had me fight against Erasers (much to my disappointment) and allowed me to use my feathers on them (much to the Erasers' disappointment). He was almost like a father. He was kind to me, unlike the other whitecoats and I eventually opened up to him.

Every so often, I saw Jeb talking with an Eraser. The Eraser would have a pleading look in his eyes and Jeb would say something that made the Eraser walk away in disappointment/anger. One day I asked Jeb about him while he was delivering my food.

"Hey Jeb, who is that Eraser that you keep talking to?"

"That is Ari, he's my son." I was taken back. His son? An Eraser?! I didn't know what to say or what to think. "He used to be a nice kid but was turned into an Eraser when I left The School for two years." It sounded like he was hurt when he said that. I just took my food as he left the room. I felt miserable for some reason. Why should I care about other people, let alone an Eraser? All I should be focused on is staying alive and trying to break out of here. I signed and finished the last of my dinner.

One day, Jeb took me into the yard. I was surprised that the yard was empty and then got a feeling of dread. I look at Jeb and tensed up.

"Don't worry" he said "We are running a new test. See, we analyzed one of your feathers and discovered that it is in fact harder than steel. It is very resistant and we wanted to see just how resistant it was. So I began to think that your wings can be used not only for attack but also for defense." I didn't like were this was going and my bird-kid sense was going off, making it worse. "We have a couple of bombs here and we'll set them off. Are you ready?"

"Bombs?!" I said exasperated. "Are you trying to kill me?!"

"We've tested it in the lab and you're feathers should resist the explosion." Great. Somehow, Jeb coaxed me into cooperating with him and before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of the yard with a bomb placed ten feet in front of me. The whitecoats were behind a blast-proof barrier farther away. Lucky them.

"Are you ready?" Jeb called from across the yard.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I called back. I unfurled my wings and wrapped them around me. They changed into metal and I braced myself.

"Detonating bomb in 5…4…3…2…1"

Boooooooooooooommmmm!

I braced myself as I the bomb exploded just ten feet in front of me. Shrapnel hit my wings but bounced off. Luckliy it was a small bomb and I escaped unscathed. I blinked, amazed that I could survive that.

"That was excellent, Arrow" Jeb called as I folded my wings in. They sustained no damage. What do you know, this could come in handy one day. "Let's set up the next one." he said as he walked over to me.

"Woah, just because I can survive explosions doesn't mean that I'm going to do it again." I stated. But I had to admit, it was very cool.

"Alright, go inside and get something to eat. Joe, Emily, help me take this stuff inside." As I sat in my cage that night, I thought about all the things that I could do now that I knew I could survive explosions. Maybe I was bulletproof? It would be awesome if I was.

The next day was interesting. I was eating lunch in my dog crate when I heard some whitecoats talking outside.

"Yeah, I heard that Subject 11 has returned to The School. Man, when I section her brain!" Ugh, stupid whitecoats and their experiments. Can't they think about anything besides dissecting experiments? I mean we have feelings too.

The next few days were uneventful except the whitecoats were really excited about this Subject 11. Even Jeb talked about it. Then one day, all of the commotion increased. Three other subjects returned to The School. I didn't think much of it and I never even got to see who these subjects were. We were kept in different rooms. The only way I was affected was that the whitecoats paid less attention to me and I got out less often. That was fine by me since it gave me more time to think. But then I got a feeling that something big was going to happen (by the way, my bird-kid sense doesn't always warn me of danger, it also warns me if something exciting was going to happen). I tensed up and waited for whatever was going to happen. Suddenly, I heard shouts from outside. I heard crates falling onto the ground and whitecoats yelling. Then, I heard feet running inside of the building and the room to my room opened. Standing there was a whitecoat and he started talking to the two whitecoats that were in the room with me and the other experiments.

"Jeff you stay here. Bob, they're escaping, follow me." One whitecoat followed the other outside and shut the door. I knew that this was my chance. I pretended to act sick and clutched my stomach. I groaned and started to writhe in my crate, moaning. The whitecoat named Jeff looked stunned and walked over.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Th-th-the injection" I choked out. Jeff leaned in closer to my cage, confused.

"What injection? You weren't…" but he didn't get to finish because I suddenly lunged forward and punched him in the throat, disabling his voice. This was follow by a swift strike to the back of his head. Jeff fell on the floor, unconscious. Quickly, I took his keys and freed myself from the cage. I bolted through the door and turned right, down an empty hallway. Outside, I could still hear yelling and for some odd reason, hawks screeching. But I couldn't worry about that, I had to remove my shock collar before someone found out that I had escaped.

I kicked down the door to a dark room and turned on the lights. There was not much inside so I tried the next room. Success! I found a table with various tools lined up next to each other (don't ask me why there were tools there, I just assumed that I was lucky). I grabbed the wrench and started yanking at the collar around my neck (just so you know, my feathers couldn't break the collar, I've tried numerous times and it didn't work). I grabbed a screwdriver and began prying the metal apart. One last attempt with the wrench and Yes! The shock collar broke off. As I whirled around to run out of the door, my heart stopped. In the corner of the room was an Eraser. But it wasn't moving. There were wires coming out of its back and it was missing one leg. But I didn't have time to figure out what it was because I needed to get out of here.

I ran through the door and down the hall. At the end of the hall was a window. I poured on the speed and jumped, right through the window and out into freedom. The free air felt great as I unfurled my wings and took off into the sky, not caring that bits of glass had cut my arms and legs. Down below I saw Jeb, whitecoats, and Erasers. They looked pretty beat up. It was a scene of chaos down there. Then Jeb started shouting.

"Max! _Please!_ This was all a test! Don't you get it? You were _safe_ here! This was only a _test!_ You have to trust me – I'm the only one you _can_ trust! Please! Come back – let me explain!"

I had no idea what he meant until I look in the direction that he was looking. Up ahead, I saw six huge birds surrounded by hawks. Wait. They were kids. They were bird-kids! My heart skipped a beat. So they did escape. They were alive and well. Which meant that I might actually get to meet them in person! All my life I wanted someone to talk to. Someone who I could express my feelings to who would know what I was going through. And here they were. I only had to introduce myself. I looked back at Jeb who was now looking at me. If he wasn't upset before, now he distraught. I guess he didn't expect me to escape too. I felt sad that I was leaving him. I always liked him but I could not stay at The School. I could not stay in a place that reminded me of my horrible childhood.

I followed The Flock and watched them land in a cave. The hawks landed too and rested in their nests. Now that I was free, I didn't know what to do. Freedom was all I contemplated but now I didn't know what to do with all this extra time I had. I guess my first objective would be to convince the Flock to accept me. Yeah, that sounds good. I'll wait until morning to approach them. I found a cave that had a good view of the Flock's cave and quickly fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was hungry. I groaned and dragged myself to the edge of the cave and looked down The Flock was still asleep so I decided to look for something to eat. No luck. I could have killed an animal and eaten it but I didn't know how to make a fire and besides, it would take too long. I was walking around a valley when I saw six shadows take off above me. I waited two minutes then followed them. Jeez, I'm like a stalker. I need to work on my people skills.

They landed at an IHOP and I groaned. I didn't want to introduce myself in there just incase they decided to reject me and cause a scene. Plus, I was hungry. (By the way, if you're wondering how I know what and IHOP is, I picked up a lot of info from the whitecoats while I was at the Lab and the School. I'm not completely ignorant of what a normal life is like.) I decided to land behind the building and rummage through the dumpster. Ten half-eaten pancakes later, I was feeling better. I followed the Flock after they left IHOP and flew behind them far enough so that they wouldn't immediately notice me and I could still see them (raptor vision!). Just then, one of the Flock members started falling and another one caught her. Were they being attacked? I didn't sense danger so I just watched as they landed in the woods below.

I landed half a mile away and stared walking toward where the Flock was camping out. Half way there, I stopped. This was actually happening. I would finally have a family. But what should I say to them? How should I act? Would they accept me? I didn't know what to do so I just sat down and thought about it for a long time. The sun went down before I mustered up the courage to introduce myself. I walked the rest of the way and stopped just out side their camp ground. I tried to be as silent as I could and I over heard them talking.

"What about me?" said one of the older ones. She was a girl.

"I didn't hear anything about you, Max," a small girl responded apologetically. "Nothing. I'm real sorry." There was silence for a minute before the little girl perked up. She looked in my direction and I froze. The others stared in my direction too and then they all jumped up assumed battle positions. I was sure that I was hidden behind the trees and I didn't make any sound. My breathing was so quiet that even I had trouble hearing it.

"Angel, Erasers?" the one called Max asked.

"No, more like a kid" Angel replied. How did she know I was here? I decided that I should show myself before things got ugly so I unfurled my wings partially and stepped out into the clearing, hoping that when they saw that I was a bird-kid, they would accept me. They were all shocked when they saw me but then they became wary again.

"Who are you?" Max asked.

"I'm Arrow, a bird-kid like you." They were all stunned and then Max said,

"How did you find us."

"I escaped the School shortly after you guys did and didn't know where to go so I hoped that you guys could take me in." My voice trembled. This was the moment of truth. The Flock looked at each other and Max said,

"Why don't you tell us a little more about yourself?" I decided that this was my only chance so I spilled everything. And I mean everything. Well, I didn't tell about how my feathers could change into razors just incase they decided to attack me (hey, you never know, I need to be cautious). After an hour of telling them who I was and how I got here, I was out of breath and not to mention starving.

"Can I get something to eat? I'm starving" I said. Gazzy handed me some fruit and I devoured it (we introduced ourselves soon after I began my story).

"How can we trust you. You could have been sent to capture us or you could be leading Erasers to our location. You said yourself that you were designed to be a weapon." I was taken aback by Fang's comment.

"I don't know, he seemed honest. Plus, why would he tell us he was a weapon if he was here to capture us. He doesn't even look like a weapon. He looks like one of us. I mean we could take him out if he decided to attack us. There are six of us and only one of him." That was Nudge.

"I don't know. He might have some special ability that could take us all out (Fang doesn't know how right he is). Plus, there could be Erasers in the trees, waiting to ambush us."

Then Angel spoke. "He seems honest. He also wants to be a member of the flock really badly. He wants somewhere where he can belong, just like us. Plus, I don't sense any Erasers around." Now it was my turn to be stunned. How did she know this? Fang remained silent and Max spoke up.

"Alright, we'll let you join. But you'll be on probation until we can fully trust you. One wrong move and you're out." Relief flooded my body.

"Thank you so much" I said kind of pathetically.

"By the way, how old are you?" Gazzy asked.

"I think I'm 14."

"Hey, Fang, Iggy, and I are also 14." Max stated. "Nudge is 11, Gazzy is 8, and Angel's 6." I was happy. They were opening up to me. After all the akwardness passed, we all decided to go to sleep. It was really late. As I lay on the ground, sleeping a little bit away from the group, I heard Max and Fang talking about their parents and I dozed off to dreamland.


End file.
